The stories behind the buildings, statues and other points of interest that make Manhattan fascinating.

Thursday, July 28, 2016

No. 20 Jones Street

In 1794 Dr. Gardiner Jones laid out a short lane in Greenwich
Village.The block-long road took his
name, becoming Jones Street.Half a
century later, around 1844, developer George Schott completed a row of stylish
Greek Revival rowhouses on the block.

Like its neighbors, No. 20 was faced in brick and trimmed in
brownstone.Three bays wide and three
stories high over and English basement, it was intended for a financially-comfortable
family.But this section of Greenwich Village
would quickly decline.By 1857, when
William M. and Eleazar B. Brown owned the building, it was already being operated as a
boarding house.

Greenwich Village was the center of the black community in
the 19th century.Nearby
Minetta Lane was familiarly called Little Africa.When Jacob Ramsey, Jr. moved into No. 20
Jones Street around 1880 the tenant list was racially-mixed; there were two other white families in the house.

Ramsey was going through difficult domestic problems at the
time.He took rooms in the house when he and his
wife, Vandalia (called Vannie by friends) separated.Vandalia suspected Ramsey of cheating and
sued for divorce in July 1880.But when
she could produce no evidence, the case was thrown out.

Jacob then sued Vandalia for divorce, claiming that it was
she who was unfaithful.But she was
intent on proving her case and preserving her reputation.She hired a private detective who,
unfortunately for her, was not an accomplished sleuth.Ramsey complained that the detective “has
been dogging his footsteps night and day,” according to a newspaper.

It culminated in a confrontation in the Jones Street house
at 11:30 on the night of Sunday, October 31, 1880.That night, after the downstairs doorbell was
repeatedly rung, a boarder went to the door.Two women and two men insisted they needed to see Ramsey.The boarder was reluctant, but “after some
urging,” opened the door and pointed the way to Ramsey’s rooms.

In the group was Vannie Ramsey; her sister, Annie Weller;
the private detective, Edward R. Scott; and a friend, Frank Sleeper, a pump
manufacturer.They were positive they
would find Jacob Ramsey in a compromising situation with a woman.

The four quietly moved to Ramsey’s door and one of the men
knocked on it, saying that “a gentleman wished to see him.”When Jacob cracked the door open a few
inches, the group rushed in, knocking him against the bed “violently,”
according to The New York Times.

Ramsey was wearing his trousers, shirt and slippers.Before he could get to his feet he was threatened
with physical violence.“Sleeper was armed
with a formidable looking walking-cane, which he brandished over Ramsey’s head,”
said The Times.

As the two women searched the rooms, Scott “then struck him
with a club and Sleeper hit him in the stomach with a cane,” reported the The
Sun.Ramsey later complained that when
he demanded to know by what authority they had burst into the house, Scott shook
the billy club in his face and replied that the weapon was his authority.

Ramsey had all four arrested for assault.At a hearing on November 5 they pleaded
not-guilty and a trial date was set.Justice
Smith instructed Sleeper and Scott to “bring when them the weapons with which
they were armed when they broke into the room.”He also advised Jacob Ramsey that “If you are troubled again in this
manner, defend yourself.”

Ramsey’s landlord, Willard C. Hunter, lived in the
house.In October 1882 he demolished a
similar house across the street, at No. 17, and hired architect C. E. Hadden to
replace it with a three-story brick stable.

Although the S-shaped iron shutter dogs, used to prevented exterior shutters from banging in the wind, appear original; they do not appear in early 20th century photographs.

By 1893 all the tenants in No. 20 Jones Street were
black.Most had come to New York from
other areas, looking for a better life in the North.In 1889 Douglas M. Berwick arrived from
Jamaica, leaving his wife and three children behind.Berwick had been an attorney in Kingston
before coming to New York.Now he worked
in a jute factory in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

The former lawyer’s hopes never came to pass.On July 31, 1893 The Sun reported “Douglas M.
Berwick, a middle-aged man and a native of Jamaica, was found dead in his bed
yesterday morning at his boarding house, 20 Jones street.”The coroner attributed his dead to a stroke.

There was another death in the house later that year.Even in the North, most people of color could find jobs only
as servants, laborers, or other lowly positions.Edward S. Taggart was a porter on New York
Central trains.The 28-year old shared a
third floor room at No. 20 Jones Street with another porter, named Elliott.

In November Taggart became ill, and his condition worsening
to pneumonia.Around 4:00 on the morning
of November 28 Elliott was awakened by the sound of the window being
opened.He looked around just in time to
see his roommate jump to his death.The
Evening World remarked “It is thought Taggart was crazed from fever.”

A resident named Taylor was searching for work in May 1902.He was careful to identify his race in the
advertisement he placed in the New-York Tribune.“Useful Man – By colored Southern man;
experience in gardening, coaching or horses; good reference.”

A year later neither Taylor nor his wife was working.In April 1903 he placed another
advertisement: “Gardener—Cook.Southern
couple, colored; man thoroughly understands gardening coaching and care of
horses; wife good cook or houseworker.”

Another couple was looking for work that year.On June 13, 1903 a tenant named Birchard placed
an ad; and like Taylor combined his wife’s abilities with his:“Coachman and Gardener—Colored; wife good
cook; private or hotel; reference.”

A year earlier the Greenwich Settlement House had been
organized in a renovated house at No. 26 Jones Street.The Settlement House movement sought to
improve the lives of the impoverished by training them in domestic arts and
income-producing trades.

The conditions of the poor on Jones Street exemplified the desperate
need.In 1902 the infant mortality on
Jones Street was, according to The New York Times, “125 to 1,000, more than
twice what it was in other parts of the city.”

In 1910 Greenwich House purchased Nos. 18 and 20 Jones
Street for use as low-income housing.Indigent
tenement dwellers had little opportunity to enjoy the out of doors; and their
children’s play and exercise was limited to the dangerous streets. The rear yards of the Greenwich House
properties were renovated to resolve the problem.

The New York Times announced on May 16 “At 18 and 20 Jones
Street a basket ball and handball court has been fitted up for boys, while in
the yards back of the Settlement, at 26 and 28 Jones Street, a small park is to
be opened for the use of mothers and small children.”

A decision was made in 1918 that the houses at Nos. 18 and
20 Jones Street should be rented not to the needy; but to more affluent tenants
to increase the funds of the Settlement House.A renovation costing $7,000 was initiated that provided “steam heat,
electricity and plumbing.”Completed in
December, the new apartments were quickly rented and The Sun listed the eight females who had signed separate leases in December.

The following month The New York Times remarked on the
upgrades to the apartments.Each house previously
brought in a total of $70 per month.“The
results are $310 per month for each house and all the apartments were rented on
long leases.”

Although a spacious new settlement house was erected on
Barrow Street in 1917; the growing work of the organization taxed the
space.The Jones Street properties
filled the need for spill-over work like pottery making, metal work and
cabinetmaking.In 1927 No. 20 Jones
Street was renovated and in December The Times noted “The new Crafts Building
at 20 Jones Street is taking shape; there the handicraft operations will have
more room to develop.”

In 1927 the house at No. 16 had been demolished, to be replaced by the Greenwich House Workshops. Two women shop workers in No 22 take a break to get fresh air. photo New-York Historical Society

On November 18, 1929 the Settlement House added another
feature to No. 20 Jones Street.It
opened a tea room “where luncheon, tea and dinner will be served every weekday.”The Times explained that “The purpose of the
tea room is to provide a workshop for girls in connection with the Domestic
Science Department of Greenwich House, and to offer training both in business
and the dining routine of the home.”

Through the tea room girls learned nutrition, cooking
skills, serving, the handling of money and accounting, and social skills
through interacting with the public—all important abilities in making one’s way
in life.

By 1941 No. 20 Jones Street had become the Artists and
Writers Kitchen.The venue staged art
sales to benefit struggling artists.In
December that year a “Christmas portfolio” sale was held “to raise funds to
provide free meals and other aid for indigent artists and writers,” announced
The Times.Among the nationally-recognized
artists who donated works were John Sloan, Arthur William Brown, DeHirsch
Marguiles, Peggy Bacon and Gordon Grant.

In 1947 architect Henry T. Howard and his wife, Jane,
purchase Nos. 18 and 20 from Greenwich House.They renovated the two buildings to modern apartments, and removed the
outdated stoops.Skylights were punched
through the roofs to provide studio lights.The renovations were completed in 1949 and two years later the Howards
sold the buildings as a package to Tyte-Hanfield Co., Inc.

At some point during this time actor Kirk Douglas lived in a
top floor apartment, according to his autobiography The Ragman’s Son.It was
apparently a short stay, since his film career had already begun to take off.

Architect Harley Jones purchased the house in 1994 and
rebuilt the lost stoop.He sold it to
Jacinta Orlando and her lawyer husband Gus Samios in 1988.They did a gut renovation in 2004 that
resulted in a basement apartment below a single-family triplex.Their celebrity tenants in the basement
apartment was singer-songwriter Steve Earle and his wife, Allison Moorer.

In September 2010 the house was put on the market for $7.9
million.The listing created an oddity
in real estate offerings.The owner of
the house next door, No. 18—which had been for so much of the 20th
century handled as a package with No. 20—decided to sell; but only if it were sold
together with No. 20.The combined
offering was $16.5 million.

No. 18 (left) still manages without its stoop.

Although the Greek Revival doorway to No. 20 Jones Street
was long ago lost, with its restored stoop it retains 1840s appearance.The brownstone sills and lintels and
dentiled fascia board survive after a long and
sometimes harried history.